GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB, which has GPU core speed of 650 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 480 SPUs, 24 TAUs, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

(No game benchmarks for this combination yet.)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB		50 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (90%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB is 11% faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GT 512MB is much (about 33%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB		15600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5200 (33%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB is superior to the Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB		5200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5200 (100%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.